This Week in Fintech (10/9)

Hello Fintech Friends,

I’d be curious to hear people’s thoughts on a few recent payments practice updates.

A Canadian settlement will allow merchants to add a surcharge up to 2.4% on credit card transactions, to help them recoup lost revenue from fees. Is this defensible?

And PayPal can now withdraw up to $2,500 from SMB accounts if they’ve been found to “spread misinformation.” Does this violate financial consumer (business) protection standards? Curious to hear your thoughts.

(PS: We’re partnering with our friends at Fintech Today, Activant, Truework, and Rutter on a small Money2020 kickoff, come say hi. And - only 25 general admission tickets left to The Fintech Formal, hope to see you there!)

Please find another week of fintech exits and deep reads below.

Rutter is a Universal API for Commerce & Accounting (’Plaid for Commerce’) that makes it easy for fintech companies (like Ramp, Mercury, Airwallex, Parafin) to read and write financial data from e-commerce platforms, marketplaces, accounting systems, and payment processors like Shopify, Amazon, WooCommerce, Quickbooks, Xero, Stripe, Chargify, and 30+ other integrations.

Join us for a panel discussion, Unbundling The Fintech Opportunity with Marc Andrusko from a16z, on Wednesday, October 19, 2022, at 11 AM PT. Learn More

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☯️ Exits

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🤝 M&A - Fintech

ATM builder Brinks acquiredNoteMachine, a network of UK ATMs, for $179 million (or 5x adjusted EBITDA).
Humane debt collection innovator TrueML * (formerly TrueAccord) acquired the collections business of debt recovery provider Enhanced Recovery Company.
MoneyGram acquired 12% of UAE-based payments superapp Jingle Pay.
Embedded banking provider Q2 acquired Canadian expense management startup Sensibill.
Crypto payments provider Circleannounced that it will acquire merchant and developer-first payments orchestration platform Elements.
Fintech venture capital firm QED acquiredLingua Franca Search, a boutique executive search firm that specializes in placing financial professionals.
Aztec Software, an adult education software provider, acquired financial wellness education platform iGrad.
Private equity firm SFW Capital Partners completed the sale of payroll and accounting firm Greenshades to Waypoint Capital and Gearbox Capital.
In a surprise move, Naspers private equity arm Prosus called off the $4.7 billion acquisition of BillDesk, the Indian online merchant payments and banking provider, which it planned to incorporate into its PayU business, citing certain conditions precedent which were not fulfilled.

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🏦 M&A - Bank and FinServ

French bank and merchant services provider Société Générale will acquire a majority stake in PayXpert, a UK-based provider of payment solutions for merchants, acquirers and fintechs.
Multinational bank HSBC is considering selling its multibillion dollar Canadian retail banking division.